Description:

A-The origins of Islamic Art
The middle of the 7th century A.D. saw with the rise of Islam the creation of a new religion and of a great military empire. It was in these early years that Islamic Art developed and coalesced into a definitive style. By looking at early monuments such as the Dome of the Rock and the Great Mosque of Damascus, this class will explore the ways in which the rulers of the first Islamic empires combined existing artistic styles with new Islamic elements to develop what we now identify as Islamic art. The class will also discuss issues such as how the precepts of Islamic belief affected early Islamic Art, and the ways in which the early Islamic rulers used art and architecture to express their growing power.
B-The Art of Islamic Spain
The Umayyad Empire in Spain left the greatest footprint of Islamic civilization in Europe. This class will explore the monuments of Islamic Spain both as a reflection of the greater Islamic world of the 7th-14th centuries CE and as a reaction to the greater European world in which it found itself.
C-Ornament & Calligraphy in the Islamic Tradition
The aversion to figural imagery in Islam led to the development of a distinctive style in Islamic art that focuses on non-figural elements- particularly geometric and vegetal ornament and calligraphy- that have become in pervasive throughout the Islamic world. This class explores some of the most common ways in which ornament and calligraphy is used in the art of the Islamic world.
D-Tradition of Persian Miniature Painting
In the 15th century, the Mongol invasions brought Chinese influence to the Islamic world and in many ways completely changed both its art and its society. The period from 1400 to 1800 saw the rise of many of the great Islamic empires- the Timurids in Central Asia, the Safavids in Iran, the Mughals in India, and the Ottomans in Anatolia. The art of this period, from the miniatures of the Safavid court to elaborate Mughal tombs such as the Taj Mahal, reflects the wealth and power of these great empires as well as a strong identity that can be traced back to the earliest days of Islam. This class will explore these new imperial arts, especially miniature painting, and discuss the changing attitudes towards art and architecture in the imperial court. Other issues to be discussed will include the influence of contact with the newly resurgent Western world as well as contacts with Eastern Asia.
E-Modern & Contemporary Art
This class will explore the role and identity of Islamic art in the modern world.

Marta Ameri is Assistant Professor of Art History at Zayed University in Dubai. She received her Ph.D. In Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology, with a minor in Islamic Art, from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. Her research focuses on the use of seals for administration as well as on exploring the role the seals play as markers of identity and as indicators of intercultural exchange. In her dissertation she catalogued and analyzed a group of seals and seal impressions found at the Chalcolithic site of Gilund in Western India. Her current projects include editing a volume on the use of seals and sealing throughout the ancient world and a project that seeks to use mortuary data to explore women’s roles in administrative practice in 3rd millennium Iran and Central Asia. In addition to her teaching, Marta also spent many years working as a researcher at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and has excavated in Italy, Greece, Turkey, Syria, India and Oman.